Keeping cool the challenge for 2014

Caterham technical director Mark Smith says the issue of cooling is set to be the biggest challenge teams will face when new engine rules come into play for the 2014 F1 season.

Next year will see teams switch to 1.6-litre turbo-charged units featuring an Energy Recovery System, which will replace the V8 engines already in place.

That change in engines is set to provide teams with a number of challenges when it comes to the design of their new cars with Smith insisting that the change was 'far reaching' when it comes to the work that is now going into the 2014-spec cars.

“Fundamentally, the power unit is significantly different,” he told the official F1 website. “It's not as if we've gone from a 3.0-litre V8 to a 3.2-litre V8 - it's a significantly different lump of architecture in terms of the physical size of the internal combustion engine and it also has a relatively big turbocharger assembly associated with it.

“The exhaust configuration - as a result of the turbo installation - is also a big departure from what we currently have. The way in which the turbo installation impacts upon the transmission is significant. We've had many changes of engine configurations since the previous turbo era (which ended at the end of 1988), but this is one that impacts in so many ways.

“At Caterham we buy our gearboxes from Red Bull, but it impacts upon their design and that in turn impacts on installation of clutch assemblies and suspension. It's quite far reaching.

“But bigger than all of that is the cooling challenge. That's probably the thing that, I imagine, has most people up and down the pit lane scratching their heads. It's reasonably easy to come up with a solution that will cool, but to come up with a solution that will cool and give you the optimum aerodynamic performance is the challenge.

“The charged air cooler, for cooling the air from the turbo before it goes into the engine, will, on all of the installations, be quite significant. Physically, the size of the thing will dictate the packaging of everybody's cooling systems. That's the biggest single thing, I think, that's presented itself as a challenge in terms of the overall car architecture.”

Toro Rosso's James Key agreed that cooling would be an issue for teams to deal with next year, but insisted there were other challenges that would need to be faced.

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Whoever can handle the engine in a good way and be reliable will have a good result, but it will be difficult to run the season without issues, the engine of which there will be five per driver will have to cover four to five thousand kilometres per unit which is double what the present units have to cover, if a driver exceeds his five COMPLATE units he will start from the pits, however the power unit is made up of different components, a driver may change each of these individually, only when a sixth component is used will a ten place grid penalty be applied. The new fuel regulation could dampen the racing, teams will start a race with a maximum of 100kg of fuel which is 40-50kg less than at present, F1 should have considered efficiency but should not have forced the sports where a car would be cruising for 50 percent of the race laps

Shoveit, Since you asked I've had a think about this and I suggest we deploy an external cooling aide during pit stops.
I propose that FOTA employ a simpleton (you) to lick exhaust manifolds during pit stops, it would only need 2 or 3 seconds worth of licking per car per stop so it shouldn't hurt too much but I think it could provide 4 or 5% extra cooling. It would be very cost effective and give you a useful purpose in life.
Good idea all round eh?